Russia values international payments in Bitcoin
In late March, the chairman of the Russian Congressional Energy Committee, Pavel Zavalny, said at a press conference that Russia is open to accepting bitcoin as payment for its natural resource exports.
"When it comes to our 'friendly' countries, such as China or Turkey, which do not pressure us, for some time now we have been offering them to pass payments to national currencies, such as rubles and yuan," Zavalny said during the press conference .
“With Turkey, lire and rubles can be used. So there can be a variety of currencies, and this is standard practice. If they want bitcoins, we will exchange them for bitcoins ”.
While the chatter has focused on Putin's demands for "rubles for gas" and the fact that the ruble has risen to multi-year highs against fiat currencies.
Yesterday, however, the Interfax news agency quoted a government official who said on Friday that Russia is considering using cryptocurrencies for international payments.
"The idea of using digital currencies in transactions for international settlements is actively discussed," said Ivan Chebeskov, head of the financial policy department of the Ministry of Finance.
Discussions have reportedly been ongoing for months, and although the government expects cryptocurrencies to be legalized as a means of payment sooner or later, a consensus has not yet been reached.
The finance ministry is discussing adding the latest international payments proposal to an updated version of a draft law, Vedomosti newspaper reported Friday, citing government officials.
Allowing cryptocurrency as a means of settlement for international trade would help counter the impact of Western sanctions, which have seen Russia's access "limited" to traditional cross-border payment mechanisms, Chebeskov said.
The fact that Russia is open to accepting bitcoin changes the cards, as Putin dismissed the possibility last year in an interview at Russian Energy Week in Moscow.
"I believe it has value," Putin said at the time, referring to Bitcoin.
"But I don't think it can be used in the oil trade."
The current size of the Bitcoin market and its liquidity cast doubts on whether the peer-to-peer currency could be used extensively by countries in international trade at this time. BTC's capitalization is still too limited, and, in the same way, its volatility makes it complex as a payment system. However, Russia could use Bitcoin for some pilot exchanges, perhaps in limited and controlled channels, or it could facilitate its use for individuals, to make it easier for them to access legitimate international services, from travel to small peer to peer commercial transactions. . It would already be enough, but for now the BTC price remains unchanged, a sign that these rumors have not had particular effects.
Thanks to our Telegram channel you can stay updated on the publication of new articles of Economic Scenarios.
The article Russia evaluates international payments in Bitcoin comes from ScenariEconomici.it .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/russia-bitcoin-economia/ on Sun, 29 May 2022 08:30:54 +0000.